bwlkins

[bwlkins]

Hey, I reaaally love all your meta analysis, especially the one on Aziraphale's morality. You truely have a wonderful writing style! And you expressed the feelings I had about the S2 finale I couldn't put into words and had me in tears again. I never really believed in the coffee theory (although a part of me hoped for it since it would be way less painful). But there is one thing I can't wrap my head around. The coffee theory is partly supported by the final scene of Aziraphale in the elevator and his creepy smile. Even when he looks forward to his new position and is convinced he does the right thing, I can't believe he wouldn't smile like that (and Michael Sheen is to talented for it being am accident). He still lost his soulmate Crowley, he still had to give up the life he loved so dearly and we know how much he struggled with that in the first place talking to Metatron. So why this smile, which aside from that, really did not look like him? I fear, that his memories were wiped out in this elevator. But since you have so a great understanding of Aziraphale's character, I would like to know your theories about that? Thanks a lot!!

(In response to my meta on why Aziraphale had to go to Heaven)

Thank you so much for your kind words, @sabotage-on-mercury (truly means the world to me). Honestly, the creepy smile was one part of the ending I couldn't quite put my finger on either, until someone pointed out on a Twitter response to my meta:

The reason why its scary is bc azi is becoming properly angry at the system and is 101% determined to set things right (Source)

In season 1, Aziraphale was determined not to kill anyone to stop the Apocalypse. He wouldn't even tell Crowley where the Antichrist was, because Crowley's only solution was to kill him.

And because Crowley consistently didn't have any ideas ("not one single better idea??"), Aziraphale took it on himself to pursue the only option left––to ask God to intervene and stop both Heaven and Hell from destroying Earth. Therefore, Aziraphale had to keep the integrity of his angel status by distancing himself from Crowley, while the world was still in danger.

Despite this dedication avoid bloodshed, when God didn't have an answer, Aziraphale went against one of his core beliefs to help save the world. He was willing to murder a child.

For Aziraphale, that takes guts. And (seeing how he reacted at the end of the Job minisode), I wonder that if he had killed Adam Young, Aziraphale would have checked himself into Hell.

Going to Heaven for Aziraphale is ultimately a conscious choice, one that he is clearly afraid of. We see him constantly steeling himself again the Metatron in the end, covering his fear and hurt from losing Crowley with a placid smile and a flippant attitude. He's wearing so many masks, to Crowley, to himself, to the Metatron...

All season we've seen him playing roles (detective, magician, doctor, landlord). But the final role is warrior. Going up that elevator, we first see Aziraphale's eyes searching, worried, panicking, but unable to show it because he's not in a safe space. He swallows, blinks, he's breathing hard (you can see his entire shoulders rise and fall).

But as he goes up, his expression steels. He's quite literally putting on a mask (to himself): a vengeful, hardened expression of pure anger and rage (to drown out the fear and uncertainty he so clearly still has).

Michael Sheen conveying contained anger in both Good Omens and Masters of Sex (gif by @julielilac)

Cuz this isn't just him scrambling to kill a kid, this is him walking calmly and knowingly into sacrificing everything he loves most (Crowley, the bookshop, his entire life on earth) to create a world that will always be safe for him and Crowley and humanity for the rest of time. Where he would have to go up against the most powerful angels, the Metatron, and God Themself to change things. He can't be the kind, sweet angel he was on Earth. That won't cut it in Heaven if he wants to make a difference in any real way.

He wanted to do it with Crowley, with the love and support and strength of his demon. But without him, Aziraphale has to channel something else to keep his resolve afloat.

Something he had when he was a warrior, fighting on the front lines of a battle between Heaven and Hell, when he very likely led a platoon into divine fields of bloodshed before the earth was born. When he was an avenging angel.

I haven’t done this since the Great War.

It was a time and an identity he had chosen to leave behind, because it wasn't the kind of angel he was anymore ("I'm not fighting in any war!"). In this context, you can read Aziraphale's passionate unwillingness to take a life (his pacifism) directly into his past experience as a warrior. It is often the veterans of terrible wars who are the most earnest advocates for peace. (And especially in Britain and Europe, where the violence of the world wars is still such a powerful and painful national memory.)

As he goes up the elevator, he's breathing so hard we can hear it mirrored in the soundtrack, and he is so hyperfocused on steeling himself that he doesn't even care that the Metatron is watching him. He doesn't rest until he's psyched himself into that warrior mindset necessary to carry out this mission entirely by himself, to be both the moral advocate and the uncompromising leader of angels who had intimidated him his entire life. To demand respect and to talk to the very face of God and tell Them they are Wrong.

(Please read this Neil-approved meta for further thoughts on God and Aziraphale.)

That creepy smile is clearly not there because Aziraphale is happy to fall into a toxic parent's false love. There's no comfort or wistful nostalgia in that face. There's no "it'll be so much nicer" in that smile. It's not a happy smile. It's an I'm-gonna-fuck-shit-up smile.

Because it's a warrior's smile before they go into battle, before they put on that armor and, for a while, become something they're not in the name of some greater good. He's fucking furious and it's downright frightening.

Because I have no doubt that the angel Aziraphale we get in Season 3 is the angel Aziraphale who can say this:

He's not there yet in the TV show. But this bravery, this anger, this flaming rage is how it starts.

Or as he's described in the book when Aziraphale mysteriously does away with the local mafia:

Just because you’re an angel doesn’t mean you have to be a fool.

[bwlkins]

So I just learned that the word "clue" comes for the Early Modern English "clewe", meaning "ball of yarn", a word used by Chaucer in his retelling of the Greek myth of Theseus, who fell in love with Ariadne, the daughter of the evil king Minos, and was sentenced to fight to his death against the Minotaur as a punishment for this forbidden love, and of how Ariadne gave Theseus a ball of yarn to help him get out of Daedalus' labyrinth in spite of her father wishes. And apparently this retelling by Chaucer became so popular that people started using it as a metaphor to indicate something that helps you solve a problem or a mystery - a clue.

And now, considered how in s2 "the Clue" was a way from a lover to get back to the other, I can't stop thinking that in the final 15 Aziraphale is actually leaving to go fight the big monster right at the center of the scariest labyrinth of all, for the sake of his love, and of how the ball of yarn that Crowley gave him to help him get back to their precious life is just that one kiss.

[bwlkins]

Fearful Memories (Aziraphale KNOWS)

[Moments that Matter]

"Silly Aziraphale. Clueless Aziraphale.

So easily taken in. So devoted to Heaven he can't see how awful it really is.

Guess that's why he left Crowley..."

?????????

Look at this moment. If you believe that Aziraphale has dreamy thoughts of heaven, and is idealistic about how "right and good" it is, look very closely.

That's not just a startle response. It's exaggerated, extreme, terrified. Aziraphale's eyes become unfocused for a moment. He's literally swaying, disoriented and off-balance. When he refocuses, he's not reassured that it's "just Jim". Aziraphale isn't seeing "just Jim". He's seeing a threat to his life, to his existance. That's PTSD, folks.

That's trauma.

Aziraphale was deep in thought about heaven at the time of the God/Satan Job bet, 2500 BC. He was remembering how Gabriel and Michael couldn't begin to comprehend the love that Job and Sitis had for their children, that they wouldn't want them destroyed and replaced. Aziraphale had futilely tried to advocate and explain, about human parental love, and and also that 7 more births wouldn't be a positive thing for Sitis. During the interaction, our Angel was scoffed at, disbelieved, patronized, mocked, minimized, and accused of not trusting God's plans. It was controlling, debasing, and altogether toxic.

Interestingly, their casual violence of destroying and replacing Job's children was subtle. The archangels don't see themselves as violent. They're RIGHTEOUS. They're "the Good Guys." Destroy Job's livelihood and his family? God's will. Battle your fellow angels and cast them plunging down into pools of burning sulfur and darkness? That's Justice. Even those who weren't violent, and just challenged your authority by asking too many damn fool questions? ABSOLUTELY FINE. They deserve it.

Heaven carries a constant undertone of violence. The threat is everpresent. "We did it before -- we are capable of doing it again." And Aziraphale is constantly hypervigilant because of it.

Worst of all, some of them enjoy it...

Aziraphale doesn't forget. He copes. He masks. He gives performative compliance to survive. They watch. They listen. Aziraphale spouts off heavenly rhetoric to keep them at bay and to keep his beloved demon safe.

Crowley didn't forgive Gabriel for trying to destroy Aziraphale with hellfire. Why do we somehow assume that Azi will forgive heaven and the archangels, when it was Crowley they actually kidnapped and beat and cast into the fire? (I have serious questions about how Crowley came to be tied into that chair. When we see him examine his bonds, I suspect he just came back into consciousness.)

"Oh, but Crowley didn't tell him about it!"

It's very clear that he did, prior to the first episode of S2. Crowley states during their argument about Jim that this is the same heavenly boss that tried to cast Aziraphale into hellfire. It obviously wasn't news to Aziraphale -- he doesn't miss a beat. He's simply focused on protecting this lost helpless featherless bird that's also been victimized by heaven.

"Okay, but that stuff was all done by the archangels. Aziraphale still let himself get sweet-talked and flattered by the Metatron, because he still believes heaven and the Metatron are Good."

We know -- WE KNOW -- that Aziraphale will do anything to protect Crowley. We've seen it over and over.

And we also know -- we are clearly shown -- that the Metatron hates Crowley, and Aziraphale knows it. Our Angel sees the same look we see. He keeps walking, anxiously trying to lead the Metatron away from Crowley.

Remember, this is the same Metatron who broke the last remnants of Aziraphale's innocence in S1. The same Metatron who spoke so casually about how "a multi-nation nuclear exhange would be a nice start" to the War between Heaven and Hell. Who didn't give the slightest thought about all the lives on Earth.

Aziraphale remembers this too.

Aziraphale is not a fool. He's a survivor, and a Protector. He's the fecking ANGEL OF THE EASTERN GATE who risked damnation to give his Flaming Sword to protect a pregant couple from the wilderness, and LIED to the Supreme Archangel to save the lives of 3 children. He's the Principality who was willing to go up against a giant Hellhound unarmed, and held his restored Sword up against Satan himself, knowing full well it would be futile.

Aziraphale is not stupid. He's analytical, investigative. He makes connections, sees patterns. He studied and solved the mysteries of Agnes Nutter's prophesies, and he studied and researched and remembered to explore the mystery of what happened to Gabriel.

Aziraphale knows what heaven is like. Imagine the Courage it took to return there. He had a much bigger reason than being cajoled and flattered. He would never believe that he could rewrite heaven's rules and make it all better.

Aziraphale had a plan. A spontaneous plan, a crazy plan, a desperate plan? Absolutely.

But fooled by heaven? Silly you, if you were even thinking it.

*****

(Btw, I think Crowley was part of that desperate, chaotic plan, but that's all explained in my Chess Moves Theory set!)

*****

Thanks for being here, and for considering the eager and enthusiastic writings of a stalwart Aziraphale defender and a believer in the Ineffable Old Married Couple!

[bwlkins]

does michael sheen know? does he know that he made aziraphale so synonymous with warmth and sweetness and love that for so many of us, he is our comforting inner voice? our place to rest? does he know???

[bwlkins]

Crowley referring to Gabriel, Michael, and the others not as "angels" but as (the honestly more accurate) "angelic entities" in front of Aziraphale is such a wonderful bit of flirt.

Crowley very deliberately not using "angel" to describe anybody else as a nod to Aziraphale that Crowley's romantic pet name for him is a word that he sees as belonging just to Aziraphale is really sweet.

Romancing his angel and shading angelic entities have always been the twin passions of Bildad the Shuhite.

[bwlkins]

Aziraphale needs to finally learn...

....how awful Heaven and Gabriel/Archangels/Metatron are...

And for anyone who might think Aziraphale's paranoia is stupid, a reminder.

[I know about the Arrangement] IF YOU WANT TO WORK WITH CROWLEY AGAIN; as Supreme Archangel, you'll have the power to reinstate him as an angel and do it that way. [And that's the only way.]

There is absolutely no option for Aziraphale to stay and stay with Crowley. None. Zero. Nilch. Nada. It's not said out loud what will happen if he insist he won't take the job (or it is and we have not seen it because Aziraphale doesn't tell Crowley about it). But he definitely doesn't have the option to stay and carry on stopping Armageddons and hiding wayward Archangels.

P.S.

Gifs by the wonderfully talented @crowlixcx and @fuckyeahgoodomens ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[bwlkins]

"i can't believe aziraphale had goth david tennant and FUMBLED him" "aziraphale should give me that gay alt demon he doesn't know what to do with all that" you idiots crowley doesn't WANT your reasonable ass. he specifically derives his enrichment from surgically and methodically dissecting the object of his affection in order to figure out how to safely wedge himself in the infinitesimal crevice between its saviour complex on one side and debilitating insecurity on the other side and strategizing how to subtly do that over the course of 6000 years as gingerly as possible or else it will get startled and panic like a horse when it hears a loud sound and start bucking and kicking and trampling over everything they've built and possibly injure itself in the process. crowley is a demon of very specific taste and he wants this or NOTHING and y'all talk big but can't even begin to satisfy this tall order. sit down.

[bwlkins]

What I'd say if i was there

TG Channel: Taghreed_Nowar

[bwlkins]

Crowley on Patrol (or, They weren't entirely caught off-guard)

From Before the Beginning, Aziraphale has already learned to anxiously fear Heavenly control and retribution. From all the way back to the time of Job, Aziraphale realized that Heaven was cruel and uncaring. He, like Crowley, begins to "only go along as far as [he] can." These flashbacks not only give us lovely backstory moments in Our Ineffables' relationship, they're meant to give us important information about the current crisis. Aziraphale is NOT blind to Heaven's wiles and schemes, and Crowley has learned the hard way to stay one step ahead.

When Aziraphale opens his illustrated story of Job, we can see how powerfully that incident affected them both. Gabriel, whether True Believer or Pawn, heralds danger for them both. Aziraphale's approach to problems is to research and plan. Crowley, now in his "I'm a demon and I mean business" turtleneck, chooses action. Aziraphale glances out the window anxiously before pulling out the book; Crowley remains vigilantly looking outward.

He leaves while Azi is reading, immersed in harsh memories. When we next see Crowley, just before he runs into Nina, Crowley is on patrol.

He looks formidable, determined. His jaw is tight, he's looking around as he strides along. Using a map of Whickber Street (@cruciatusforeplay made an excellent one, here), we see that Crowley is on the opposite side of the street. He's just passed an Italian restaurant and is in front of the suit shop. He is not yet across from the bookshop. That is ahead, on his left. Crowley is first looking behind him, to the Bookshop side, but farther back than Maggie's record store.

He's on guard for approaching trouble.

He looks towards the Bookshop. All is well for now. No lurking Archangels.

When Crowley runs into Nina, moments later, he literally strides right past her. She wasn't his purpose. When she speaks first, it occurs to him to ask her about rain, and when the odd conversation is done, he strides onward. He does not cross back to the bookshop, but crosses to the next street and continues his patrol.

Crowley is also not parked close to the bookshop, like he normally does. He's on the next block, past the flower stalls. Archangels may be clueless about Earth-life and material objects like cars, but Crowley is taking extra precautions that they don't notice the Bentley near Aziraphale's shop. It seems that Shax and Hell are more tolerant of his angel-contact than Heaven would be.

Our vigilant demon also doesn't angle his body towards the car until Aziraphale (literally!) pops up. I think he meant to continue his patrol farther.

He is determined to not be caught off-guard, if he can help it.

It's a significant moment, an important detail. When the Metatron showed up in the final episode, they were not expecting the strategy he used. That wasn't in their plan. It threw them into chaos and painful misunderstanding about what to do next. Those emotions were real.

But Aziraphale was never fooled. And Crowley never gives up on him. They have too much history to the contrary. Moments of conflict and spouting off and Existential Exhaustion, sure... (I talk about it here.) But totally giving up on each other? They understand each other too well to let it all fall apart in 15 minutes.

They were determined to fight the threat together. They believe in other. They trust each other.

And I believe they're still fighting it, together, as the episode ends. It's what devoted Old Married Couples do.

What are your thoughts?

**********

You might enjoy one of the metas that I wrote about the bond Our Ineffables share, and why I believe in them so much:

Anything to Protect Crowley

An Old Married Couple

What A Brave and Handsome Demon (Angel?)

Reflections and Divisions

Finding Forgiveness (The Apology Dance)

Good Omens & the Existential Art of Not Giving Up

HERE'S TO OUR WORLD!

[bwlkins]

Aziraphale

This is your regular reminder that Aziraphale is soft and silly because he chooses to be.

He's innocent and naive and pretends not to know what Mrs Sandwich does for a living because he chooses to.

Aziraphale was created to be a warrior and a guardian, he was instructed to drive the humans out of the Garden and use his sword to keep them out. He has a mind that encompasses more of the universe than we could ever understand. And he decided, all on his own, that he would prefer to be soft and silly, actually, and read his books and watch over his human neighbors.

I don't know if we spend enough time thinking about the ramifications of this. A lot of fans seem to take Aziraphale at face value, forgetting that misdirection is both a theme and a plot point throughout the show.

[bwlkins]

-You know what it's like when you don't know anything at all, and yet you're totally certain that everything would be better if you were just near one particular person? -No. Certainly not. I have no idea what that feels like. What makes you say that?

-Yeah, I've been looking back over a number of your… previous exploits, and I see that in quite a few of them you formed a de facto partnership with the demon Crowley.

[bwlkins]

nice pair of characters who trust each other more than anyone else in the whole entire world it would sure be a shame if one of them betrayed that trust for the sake of trying to keep the other alive. it would sure be a shame to love someone so much you destroy them

[bwlkins]

Good Omens & the Existential Art of Not Giving Up (or, When It's All Exhausting)

So many of us love Good Omens, especially Crowley and Aziraphale, with an intensity that our friends and loved ones may not understand. We analyze their choices, their relationship, their future. We cry over them. We speculate, create and enjoy fanfics about them, and await the conclusion of their story with all of our hopes and fears on the line.

For me, one of the biggest reasons I'm so attached to their story is because of the way they constantly fight to figure out how to exist as they are, in a universe that forces them be something they're not. They make mistakes, they get overwhelmed, and sometimes they totally screw it up. But they always come back.

They never give up.

Our world is -- tough -- to say the least. Many of us are struggling to figure out how to exist as we are. So many pressures and expectations, so much conflict and... Well, you already know exactly what I mean! Existential Exhaustion is real, and all too present.

Good Omens provides something much more important than an escape from those harsh realities. I believe it provides HOPE.

I lost hope for a little while. I've been away from Tumblr and my AO3 writing for months because of it. Good Omens was helping me keep my head above water in a chaotic, exhausting world. When the future of GO itself got chaotic, I lost something (for awhile) that helped me make sense of the world's chaos.

But these characters, Crowley and Aziraphale, are beautiful and brave and flawed and So Ineffably HUMAN... They show us what it is to fight and fall and fail and rise to fight again. They remind us that we can mess up and still be lovable, worthy of love. And, when they get it right, they show us what acceptance and fidelity can be.

Stories are usually about how people (and angels and demons!) respond to challenges. We only get to be privy to the story of Our Ineffables when their lives are about to get turned upside down. AntiChrist about to enter the world? Season 1. Their precious, peaceful, fragile existance together about to be threatened by a mysterious Something Terrible from Heaven? Season 2.

I love to imagine what Aziraphale and Crowley's lives together were like in that short time they had together in between. (It's why we love the flashbacks, right? An extra peek at their relationship!) That time was far too short, but they came a long way since that gentle night at the bus stop, and protecting each other's very existence from Hellfire and Holy Water the very next day. "To the World", they said. "To Us," it meant, and how much they love it and strive to protect it.

Like us, Our Ineffables are flawed fellows. They get overwhelmed. Aziraphale gets too anxious, and starts spouting off things he doesn't really mean. Crowley loses his temper, and likewise starts spouting off things he doesn't really mean...

They fight with each other.

They fight for each other.

And life stays hard. They get overwhelmed. Anxiety happens. Anger happens. Bad decisions happen. Existential Exhaustion. Doesn't put any of us at our best, yeh?

But they keep trying to figure it all out and make it right. For the world and for each other...

Maybe I believe in Our Ineffables so much because I need something to believe in that gives me Hope, something that helps me keep fighting. Because I do believe in them, both of them. They mess up, but they don't give up.

Maybe that's not such a weird thing for any of us to believe in.

[bwlkins]

I have wanted to talk (rant) about a miracle in Good Omens that, I feel, does not get enough exposure (such as in the meta posts that discuss miracles, like this one, but also in general discussions of Good Omens awesomeness). The miracle of Aziraphale&Madame Tracy getting to Tadfield airbase with Shadwell.

We get to see just the start of this miraculous flight in the TV show.

(GIF source - thank you, @fuckyeahgoodomens​)

The book describes this scene in glorious detail - first 

Putputputputput and a blue nimbus began to outline the scooter and its occupants with a gentle sort of a glow, like an afterimage, all around them.

- as we see in the show. And then:

I would like to draw attention to the “probably wasn’t going at more than two hundred miles an hour” bit. The top speed I can find Crowley going is 120 mph (in London, after the bookshop fire). While Aziraphale may be wary of Crowley’s driving, let it be remembered that the Angel is not afraid to go fast (well, at least in a physical sense. Okay, that still sounds wrong. In a literal sense. I’m not talking about 1967 here!)

To be fair, Aziraphale did slow down some over time. Per script book, he crosses the M25 at a mere 100 mph. And how saddened I am that we do not get to witness that crossing in the show!!! Even though it is described in the script briefly, the book offers a full, colorful description:

WHAT AN IMAGE!

But apart from the sheer aesthetic of it, I would like to discuss the more functional/mechanical aspects.

Crowley drives the Bentley to M25 as fast as the terrain allows, including in the book crossing the River Thames, apparently, across its bottom, which is special in its own right, and blasts across M25. Through an astounding and much celebrated feat of imagination and sheer willpower, with white knuckles, clenched teeth and glowing eyes (something-something “biospatial feedback?” per the book? always been curious about that little detail) he keeps himself and his most immediate belongings from combustion - in the book it is noted that he moves Agnes Nutter’s book to “the safety of his lap”. Then and for the following 30 miles Crowley keeps the Bentley together, but it becomes a fireball, a mess of burnt metal with no paint left and completely melted tires. It is damaged beyond repair, and memorably explodes in the show. 

And by all accounts, Crowley is exhausted by this process. In the book he “wasn’t feeling very well” by the end of the journey. In the original TV script he falls down upon exiting the remnants of the Bentley.

Let’s compare this to Aziraphale’s miracle.

Aziraphale lifts a scooter with two corporations 40 feet into the air, and flies it 40 miles to the Tadfield airbase at speeds of 100-200 miles per hour. Even more impressively, he generates a sort of force-field bubble, which is unharmed by the flames of M25 other than fading at the edges and completely protects the scooter, its passengers and their belongings (the Thundergun) from harm.

It is explicitly stated both the in the book and the TV show script that the impact of M25 is not limited to the ground, and flying over it is no easier than crossing at the ground level.  

SCIENTIST 1: Everything you are telling us is ridiculous. The temperature immediately above the M25 right now is somewhere in excess of 750 degrees…

SCIENTIST 2: Or minus a hundred and fifty. 

SCIENTIST 1: Or minus 150. It’s probably just a mechanical error. The point is, we can’t even get a helicopter over the M25 without winding up with helicopter McNuggets.

The M25 is so terrible that even a Duke of Hell cannot protect himself from it. In fact, Crowley seems to believe there is no way for a human to get across.

A screaming, glowing ribbon of pain and dark light.* Odegra. Nothing could cross it and survive. Nothing mortal, anyway.

Well, I guess someone forgot to inform Aziraphale of this. While Crowley applies all his powers to keep from catching fire and has to remember not to breathe, the protection Aziraphale affords his human companions is so absolute that Madame Tracy thoroughly enjoys the flight (while Shadwell is simply terrified, but never mentions other discomfort).

And apparently Aziraphale does this without visibly breaking a sweat? The landing is not described, but there are no mentions of “stumbling away from the scooter”. In fact, the whole journey is never mentioned again, like it’s no big deal. (How cool is that?!)

Crowley has an amazing imagination, and his ability to stop time is highly impressive. But as far as transporting goods and people across occult obstacles - I think Aziraphale takes the cake.

[bwlkins]

Aziraphale silently snapping his fingers when he sees Crowley in Rome is so cute because Ancient Rome was the origin of doing that instead of applauding to indicate happy approval of something.

Nowadays, you're likely probably more likely to see that at poetry readings, within sororities, or between actors workshopping in group settings but, in the 41 AD of Rome, Aziraphale moving his fingers like that is the equivalent of being so happy to see that redheaded crab that he's basically silently clapping with excitement.

[bwlkins]

[bwlkins]

Do you ever think about how fundamentally, Crowley and Aziraphale’s jobs would have set them up to respectively see the best and the worst of humanity, even though at first glance it seems like it should be the opposite?

Crowley got to meet Jesus. Yeah, to tempt him, but he was hanging out with Mr. Be Kind To Each Other. You don’t have to tempt a person who’s already sinning. Crowley’s job may have been to make the good people worse, but it was still to interact with the good people.

Aziraphale, on the other hand, was trying to call people to Good. You don’t do that to people who are already Good. You have to go to the people who are cruel, who are mean, who abuse their power, and try to save them. People like Gabriel. He went to places that needed to be reminded that good existed in the world, because it was just so bad.

And we can see the outcome! Aziraphale is used to handling assholes like Shadwell who throw slurs at him. Crowley is, at his heart, an optimist. Aziraphale has gotten mixed up with Nazis and the mafia! Crowley interacts with sweet ladies running cabarets!

Idk, do y’all already think about that, or is this brain-flipping for anyone else?